Julius Maada Bio started his second term as President of Sierra Leone on June 27, 2023, through an electoral coup d’état. This event gave meaning to what his notoriously flippant wife Fatima Jabbie Bio told an audience of supporters in 2022. She said that her husband had a Ph.D. in coup d’état, and therefore nobody could remove him from power. Most people thought her statement was nonsensical at the time. However, the events of the 2023 elections, which took place on June 24, 2023, revealed that Mrs. Bio’s claim was aligned with her husband’s intention and plan to retain power as president of Sierra Leone by all means possible; including by coup.
It may sound counterintuitive to propose that a man serving as President can execute a coup on his own government, but this is the current reality in Sierra Leone. Indeed, Mr. Bio revealed to the whole world on June 27, 2023, that he was not going to risk defeat at the polls, so he resorted to using the electoral commission to execute a coup.
Mr. Bio’s five-year term as President from 2018 to 2023 was marked by extreme hardship for the people of Sierra Leone, it was also marked with extreme financial corruption by the President, his wife, and many of the people in his Sierra Leone People’s Party Paopa network. Additionally, during those five years, Sierra Leoneans experienced several extrajudicial killings of innocent citizens by Maada Bio’s heavily armed lethal presidential guards. For instance, in April 2020, dozens of unarmed prisoners at the male prison were killed by Bio’s presidential guards.
This acumulation of bad experiences, including dire hardship, the loss of many innocent lives, and government corruption and inefficiency led Sierra Leoneans to protest against Maada Bio’s government in August 2022. But Mr. Bio’s response to the protest was to unleash deadly force on citizens. Maada Bio’s use of the security forces, especially his lethal presidential guards, led to the death of several citizens, mainly opposition party youth members who participated or were suspected of participating in the protest.
These events made the people of Sierra Leone seemingly powerless and at the mercy of Maada Bio’s brutal regime. But they were holding their peace and waiting for election day 2023 where they were hoping to vote for a regime change. But that hope too was crushed by Maada Bio who wanted to retain power by all means.
DESIGNING HIS ELECTORAL COUP D’ETAT
The June 27, 2023, pronouncement of Maada Bio as the winner of the 2023 Elections was an electoral coup d’état designed by Julius Maada Bio and executed by the chief of the Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone (ECSL), Mr. Mohamed Konneh. An apt definition of coup d’état was offered by Dr. Paul Johns, a political science professor at Auburn University, who defined a coup d’état as, …A quick and decisive extra-legal seizure of governmental power by a relatively small but highly organized group of political or military leaders…For the coup to be successful, the rank and file of the police and military have to be willing to take orders from the new government leaders once the coup is accomplished…
By this definition, a coup d’état is the illegal seizure of government by an individual or a small group of people. The actions of Maada Bio and Mr. Konneh on June 27, 2023 fits this definition perfectly. Additionally, the main tool for the success of such a coup is the coup maker having control of the security sector in the country. Mr. Bio’s control of the security sector has effectively turned Sierra Leone into a police state where citizens do not have freedom of speech, freedom of assembly or freedom to protest without a crackdown by security forces with Maada Bio’s orders.
Mr. Bio started planning for the June 27, 2023, coup d’état about a year before the elections, and it started with him taking control of the Electoral Commission of Sierra Leone (ECSL). He did this first by hand-picking a new Chief Electoral Commissioner with whom he could easily enter into a pact for victory in 2023. So, he illegally appointed his tribesman and boys’ club buddy, Mohamed Konneh, in July 2022; barely eleven months before the next general elections of June 2023.
Mr. Bio’s appointment of Konneh was described as illegal and protested by opposition parties. But despite all the objections from opposition parties, with clear evidence that the appointment of the new chief of the ECSL was unconstitutional, Mr. Konneh was quickly sworn in shortly after his appointment.
With his buddy and tribesman tightly in place as head of the ECSL, their pact to make Mr. Bio the victor in the next election was set, regardless of the people’s will. Mr. Bio also empowered his new ECSL chief with a new election law in the country. The Public Elections Act of 2022 was enacted also in July 2022, and it replaced the Public Elections Act of 2012. The new law had all the trimmings that served Maada Bio’s plans and it gave him full control of the ECSL, which sealed his pact with the new ECSL chief to make him the victor of the 2023 elections.
By definition, a successful coup maker also needs to have control of the security sector, which Mr. Bio had already done, with a well-trained group of sharpshooters with heavy weapons as his presidential guards. Throughout the election campaign period, the security sector showed its loyalty to Mr. Bio. There was a clear campaign of intimidation and threats against opposition party members.
Several attempts by presidential guards were made to assassinate the main opposition All People’s Congress party’s presidential candidate, Dr. Samura Kamara, his running mate Chernor Maju Bah and others. During the campaign in early June, Dr. Kamara’s convoy was attacked by the police in the eastern district of Kono.
Also, the day after the elections, on June 25, 2023, Maada Bio’s security forces attempted to assassinate Dr. Samura Kamara when he was barricaded, along with his running mate, APC executive members, and over 200 APC supporters, in the headquarters building of the APC party. If they had succeeded in their mission to assassinate the main opposition candidates, Maada Bio would have automatically become the winner of the elections.
This attack resulted in the death of a woman by the name of Mahawa Dumbuya (May her soul rest in peace). She was hit by the live bullets that were fired into the building by the presidential guards. Madam Dumbuya was a nurse and matriarch of her family, with several family members depending on her support.
The current post-election situation in the country is an atmosphere of tension, which is not different from the atmosphere of a country that is under the regime of a military coup maker. The security forces have made their loyalty to Maada Bio openly clear; they serve only the interest of Maada Bio, including perpetrating attacks on citizens by his command.
A day before the ECSL declared Maada Bio the winner of the election, uniformed security officers were seen in several videos on social media jubilating that President Bio had won the election. It was obvious that Mr. Konneh had given Mr. Bio and his supporters the assurance of his victory before he announced the results.
The public jubilation of security forces for Maada Bio’s win was a clear indication that the security forces in Sierra Leone are not neutral, will not protect the lives and properties of citizens, and are a danger to the people because they act on the orders of Maada Bio. Therefore, the atrocities committed by security forces since the announcement of Maada Bio as the winner are all indications of Mr. Bio’s use of this sector to keep the population in a state of fear. Many homes of opposition sympathizers have been burnt down around the country. Even poor market women who voted overwhelmingly for the opposition candidate, have suffered beatings and destruction of their goods and properties.
There is tension currently in Sierra Leone, since June 27, 2023, when Maada Bio was illegally declared the winner of the 2023 elections, the people are living in fear and uncertainty. The people are quite aware of the fact that their votes were stolen, and their democratic rights were violated. This was clear with the lack of transparency in the counting of votes and Mr. Konneh’s refusal to produce authentic data before and after his claim that Maada Bio won the election. This has led to voters feeling deceived by the electoral process. So far, Mr. Konneh and Maada Bio have shown no concern about the effects of their actions on the democratic status of Sierra Leone on the world stage.
I, therefore, propose that the Electoral Commissioner Mohamed Konneh’s June 27, 2023 pronouncement of Maada Bio as the winner of the 2023 elections in Sierra Leone was an electoral coup d’état designed by Maada Bio. I also believe that if his electoral coup had failed, Maada Bio would have conducted a full military coup to oust the legitimate winner of the 2023 elections. Up to the time of publishing this article, Mr. Konneh had not provided credible and certified voter data, as required by law. Maada Bio is, therefore, currently serving as an illegitimate coup d’état President of Sierra Leone.
Prisoners Killed in Sierra Leone
Protesters killed during anti-government protests in Sierra Leone
The All People’s Congress Press Release on Appointment of ECSL Chief
Sierra Leone Public Elections Act 2022
Police Attack the Convoy of Samura Kamara in Kono
Maada Bio’s Security Forces Attack Opposition Candidate
A Woman Found Wounded and Without a Pulse at the APC Heaquarters
MAMA SALONE ~ Lioness of the West Coast 
I can only describe this article with one word, excellent.
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